New questions arise over Gov. Deal, conservative PAC

A liberal advocacy group is accusing Gov. Nathan Deal of using a republican campaign fund to pay his political allies.

According to public campaign finance records, Real PAC Georgia paid $46,000 to Southern Magnolia Capital, a company run by Deal's daughter-in-law Denise Deal and $10,000 to Ken Cronan, the governors' former business partner.

Bryan Long, executive director of the progressive advocacy group Better Georgia accused the governor of using Real PAC, a conservative political action committee, as a personal fund to pay people close to the governor's office.

"Real PAC was set up to pay friends and family of the governor." Long said. "The only payments we've seen come out of this account have been to help the governor's business partners, his friends and the people who ran his campaign."

Gov. Deal's attorney Randy Evans said the governor did nothing wrong.

"They rendered services for their payments," Evans said. "Southern Magnolia is a fundraising operation and like every PAC, PAC's hire fundraisers to raise money and whenever they raise money. They get a fee for raising money."

Evans said that payments to Southern Magnolia and Cronan were "thoroughly vetted and completely legal."

Evans insisted that all of Gov. Deal's and the PAC's transactions were transparent.

Evans noted that the governor does influence Real PAC but is not officially connected to it.

Outgoing Atlanta mayor Kasim Reed has given mayoral candidate Mary Norwood 48 hours to apologize after she claimed voter intimidation in the December 5 run-off election between her and Keisha Lance Bottoms.

Outgoing Atlanta mayor Kasim Reed has given mayoral candidate Mary Norwood 48 hours to apologize after she claimed voter intimidation in the December 5 run-off election between her and Keisha Lance Bottoms.